Gray Watch

“Gray Watch pretends at power.” No one stood close enough to overhear. It wasn’t a pleasant beach, here beneath the piers. Old wood and refuse floated in the surf. Amo nodded to the sea, where a few large, fine military ships floated among a hundred merchant and labor ships. “The size of the quay might’ve meant something once, but the northern nations can’t support a united navy and their merchants can’t trade outside of their own numbers. Ever since the south allied with Revan, almost every nation in Sof Sator is trading freely with the south and closing their ports to traders from the northlands. After a thousand years of war, the north’s economy is what’s done them in.”

-"Maniaque" Chapter 7: Gray Watch

The peoples of the eastern peninsula of Sof Sator hold themselves apart both socially and economically, calling their lands Nor Sator. At the helm of the Nor Sator League is the city-state of Gray Watch. Once a far-flung outpost built by Revan’s navy to watch over the Gray Sea, the city has been independent for centuries, and grown into a military and economic power all its own. While smaller than the other League nations, Gray Watch benefits from trade with both, and once benefitted from trade with unaligned nations along the northern coast of Sof Sator. The growth of the Greater Sabine Trade Compact, headed by Gray Watch’s old masters in Revan, has greatly endangered this position, particularly now that the Compact includes the bitter enemies of the Nor Sator League.

Economy

Classically a merchant port, Gray Watch’s wealth depended on tariffs placed on imports and exports to and from Nor Sator. While Cradsoun has ports of its own, its easternmost states can more cheaply bring goods through Gray Watch than transport them from the western coast. Perhaps more importantly, the people of the Aldalneld Writhe will not accept goods from outside the Nor Sator League, so there is a significant industry in Gray Watch for brokering the Writhe’s unique exports and taking advantage of the premium the Writhe pays for goods from elsewhere in Sof Sator.
The social and economic distance that the Nor Sator league puts between itself and greater Sof Sator does take its toll. More and more of Sof Sator joins Revan’s Greater Sabine Trade Compact with passing decades, and while this has not been a significant barrier in the past, the recent addition of the Rhyqir Valley Alliance to the Compact has had a devastating effect on Gray Watch’s economy. The Thousand-Year War between the Nor Sator League and the Rhyqir Valley Alliance has given Revan cause to lean on the Compact and enforce an increasing number of embargos against the League and Gray Watch in particular. In the opinion of Gray Watch’s leading Commodore, there is a personal element to this, given the long memories of the termins who rule Revan.

Government

Revan would describe Gray Watch’s history as one of corruption, a greedy admiral using a naval outpost to trade with the Aldalneld Writhe until he grew wealthy enough to buy off his own forces, turning a naval fleet into a merchant fleet. In the year 32 CR, Admiral Urcant of Revan was ancient by anthral standards; in the history as he wrote it himself, the termins made him anxious, and he wanted to build a home for his children and grandchildren away from the newly-ascendant termins royalty. At the age of 52, Wellworn Urcant barricaded the bay of Gray Watch against his superiors. A brief battle ensued in which the powers of the Aldalneld Writhe rose from the sea to cast aside Urcant’s termins-loyal rivals. Confused and intimidated, Revan declared Gray Watch a nest of outlaws and left it alone. Urcant placed one of his lieutenants in charge of a token number of navy ships that agreed to be loyal to Gray Watch, converted the rest of his ships into a merchant fleet and set up a governing counsel of captains. Having established a merchant-run government he hoped would endure, he promptly died of old age.
Since then, Gray Watch has been led by the captains of its merchant fleet. Its head of state is its Commodore, a land-locked officer elected by the captains. The state owns a partial controlling interest in every ship in its fleet, giving the Commodore command authority second only to a ship’s own captain and, in some cases, superior to the captain. This ownership also provides these ships a number of priveleges at the port, include evasion of certain tariffs. While it’s possible for a ship to buy its own interest back from the Office of the Commodore, it’s much more common to find a ship wanting to sell its interest to the Commodore.

Contributions to the Thousand-Year War

Gray Watch has made contributions to both naval and land battles during the Thousand-Year War, but they are far outclassed by Cradsoun’s ground troops and the Aldalneld Writhe’s unconventional naval power. Gray Watch’s strengths lay in the flow of resources and services, managing supply lines that in some centuries have spanned the continent from north to south. At some points during the war's vast history, Gray Watch has made significant economic sacrifices to ensure that the front lines stay well-fed and armed, while at other points their leaders have used the war as a tool to leverage their own wealth.
Regardless of the century, the eastern roads of Sof Sator have for a millennia been full of caravans of goods from Gray Watch. Caravanning for the Thousand-Year War has been a lifestyle for generations of Gray Watch’s citizens, who have become masters of the warring lands, pitted in constant feud with enemy agents attempting to disrupt the flow of goods.

Leader, Nor Sator League.
Population: 700,000 residents, primarily anthrals.
Government type: Merchantile Admiralty.
Closest Allies: Cradsoun, The Aldalneld Writhe, Ossea.
Rivals: Pheral, The Laines, Vont, Revan.